Overview 

Why Napoleon’s 100 Days? This well documented and famous period of European and military history aptly demonstrates the leadership and teambuilding challenges faced not only by Napoleon Bonaparte and his marshals, but also the international coalition arrayed against him.  The Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I 's return from exile on the small island of Elba to Paris on  March 20,1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on July 8, 1815 (111 days).  This was the last gasp of Napoleon and it witnessed the brilliance and the limitations of Napoleon as a leader and, equally, the strengths and weaknesses of the coalition command that opposed him.  It was arguably the most important of all the Napoleonic Wars and this so-called War of the Seventh Coalition pitted Napoleon and the armies of France against the combined and united armies of Europe, most notably Britain, Prussia, and the Netherlands.

Leadership Elements Explored and Discussed

This rich and engaging battlefield metaphor provides an ideal setting within which to discuss many leadership training principles, practices and themes, including:

• A leader’s role in creating conditions for success
• Influencing effectively
• Establishing a climate of commitment and readiness
• Structuring a cohesive operation across international political boundaries and systems of authority
• Building and effectively sustaining both leadership teams and teams of leaders
• Creating a sense of order in the chaos of a rapidly changing environment
• Leveraging the power of technological change
• Balancing the sense of strategic opportunity with the calculation of immediate tactical risks
• Filtering critical initiatives from the multiplicity of important tasks
• Creating an environment fostering initiative and ownership

The Hundred Days Leadership Experience uses this monumental and pivotal series of maneuvers – the single most important campaign in Europe of the entire 19th century – as a vehicle to examine how leaders of large and complex organizations addressed extraordinary and unforeseen challenges.  Three main armies were involved in the battles:  Napoleon's Armée du Nord; a multinational army under Wellington; and a Prussian army under Blücher.

The World’s Most Famous Battle – The battlefields of Belgium – culminating in the Waterloo campaign, which comprised several pivotal battles – serve as the ideal venue for our purposes because the scenic terrain on which the battle was fought provides great insights for leaders and managers at all levels.  The beauty of these parts of Belgium vividly highlights the challenges faced by pre-industrial armies of the early 19th century.  Contrary to popular perceptions, the outcome was more in doubt than generally understood.  In the words of the Duke of Wellington, his victory was a “damned near-run thing.”  The battle was closely fought and either side could have won, but mistakes in communication, leadership and judgement led, ultimately, to French defeat.  On both sides, leadership at every level contributed to the final outcome.

Dynamic Battle That Enables Rich Leadership Exploration – The Hundred Days provides a unique opportunity to examine in depth leadership and its consequences.  Whether it was at the highest level involving the direction of tens of thousands of individuals or at the junior level involving only a handful of people, what comes through consistently is the huge difference effective leadership can make in organizational effectiveness.  On the French side, this campaign represents the last gasp, the ultimate gamble to retrieve victory from impending defeat, a herculean effort to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles when the enemy has finally coalesced.  For the Coalition, numerous issues resonate with contemporary clarity:  dealing with the unknown or unexpected; creating order out of chaos; empowering subordinates; underestimating the competition; the importance of providing clarity of intent and communication of goals..  From the top level to the bottom level, leaders modified their tactics to fit unexpected circumstances every day, and this gives us enormous opportunity under differing scenarios to explore that dynamic for learning about leadership.   The complexities of building a strong team using an international cast makes the battle extremely contemporary in its consideration and representation of orchestrating activity in global organizations.

The Benefits

Through our exploration of the battle, participants of the Napoleon’s Hundred Days Leadership Experience will derive a number of benefits.  Rich in models of character-based leadership, this leadership training from history provides participants further insights into:

• The role of the leaders in shaping the future
• Building and sustaining teams
• Managing processes
• Nurturing learning
• Managing order through chaos

Effectively communicating and understanding intent, setting clear direction and expectations, and achieving organizational alignment

Greater Team Cohesion -- In addition to gaining these benefits and experiencing new perspectives on leadership, group participants will also derive a greater esprit de corps.  When intact teams participate together and share a common experience, the result is highly impactful and can contribute greatly to achieving organizational alignment. 

Tailored Customization -- An important benefit to participants and organizations alike is when we customize the content of a program and/or place emphasis on a leadership aspect that has been deemed critical to the participating organization.  By gathering information from pre-session interviews or teleconferences with program sponsors and/or HR leaders, we can focus in on specific events, characters and dynamics of the battle and its leaders to make the program highly relevant and situational to all participants and the needs of that organization.  Additionally, our battlefield programs can be modified to use and integrate a company’s respective core competencies and leadership models. Further, program agendas can be adjusted to meet specific time constraints and desires of the participant companies.